It's pretty clear that live action was much easier for Walt to film than animation. It's used very sparingly, albeit effectively. Alice and her friends are putting on a wild west show. Alice recounts stories of her cowboy exploits, and it's only these adventures that are briefly animated. But the animation quality is excellent, the story is clever, and Alice is, as always, just too adorable.
5 Reviews
Much of it is more like an Our Gang comedy than an Alice cartoon.
planktonrules13 August 2012
Normally, an Alice cartoon from Walt Disney would consist of Alice (usually Virginia Davis) interacting in a cartoon world. However, this film finds Alice mostly in the real world--with only a few animated sequences. The overall effect is much more like an Our Gang comedy from Hal Roach than an Alice comedy--but the film is still quite watchable.
The film begins with Alice and her friends putting on a Wild West show--much like a show the Our Gang kids would do. However, the she is interrupted by some tough kids and all the kids in the show (except Alice) run away in fear. To try to salvage the show, Alice regales the audience with tales of her insane adventures in the West. These adventures of all animated and are pretty silly. One, oddly, is amazingly bloody--with Sheriff Alice accidentally shooting a huge number of innocent bystanders! She also smokes--making it an unusual picture considering modern sensibilities. Still, it is rather charming and fun.
The film begins with Alice and her friends putting on a Wild West show--much like a show the Our Gang kids would do. However, the she is interrupted by some tough kids and all the kids in the show (except Alice) run away in fear. To try to salvage the show, Alice regales the audience with tales of her insane adventures in the West. These adventures of all animated and are pretty silly. One, oddly, is amazingly bloody--with Sheriff Alice accidentally shooting a huge number of innocent bystanders! She also smokes--making it an unusual picture considering modern sensibilities. Still, it is rather charming and fun.
When Bogart, Davis or Flynn take a drag . . .
pixrox125 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
. . . on a cigarette, they are NOT really prompting a new generation of youngsters to cut their lives short with coffin nails. Impressionable eight-year-olds do NOT spend their days watching HIGH SIERRA, NOW VOYAGER or CUBAN REBEL GIRLS. On the other hand, when they see a peer such as the title character of ALICE'S WILD WEST SHOW puffing on a cigar and blowing smoke rings eight minutes into this lamentable film, such product placement trades Big Tobacco Blood Money for future decades of suffering, death and delinquent too early-orphaned children in a blatant Attack on Society even more egregious than Twitter's. If, like me, you have a female relative cut down in mid-life, slain too soon by the greedy minions of Big Tobacco, it's impossible to view ALICE'S WILD WEST SHOW or any other product from its chain-smoking producer with any kind of benign sympathy.
2 Alice shorts
Michael_Elliott13 March 2008
Alice's Wild West Show (1924)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Wonderful Disney short has Alice (Virginia Davis from their Alice's Wonderland) putting on a Wild West show only to have the neighborhood bully show up and try to wreck it. The mix of live action and animation here is very well done and highly entertaining especially one scene where Alice's coach is being chased by Indians. A lot of laughs and some nice suspense as well.
Alice Gets in Dutch (1924)
*** (out of 4)
Alice finds herself in another adventure after the teacher sits her in the corner where she dreams out a little revenge. Once again the mixture of live action and animation work wonderfully well together in this cute short.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Wonderful Disney short has Alice (Virginia Davis from their Alice's Wonderland) putting on a Wild West show only to have the neighborhood bully show up and try to wreck it. The mix of live action and animation here is very well done and highly entertaining especially one scene where Alice's coach is being chased by Indians. A lot of laughs and some nice suspense as well.
Alice Gets in Dutch (1924)
*** (out of 4)
Alice finds herself in another adventure after the teacher sits her in the corner where she dreams out a little revenge. Once again the mixture of live action and animation work wonderfully well together in this cute short.
More Alice than usual
Horst_In_Translation29 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Alice's Wild West Show" is a 12-minute short film from 1924, so this one is already over 90 years old. It is one of the most known works from Walt Disney's Alice franchise and it stars Virginia Davis as the title character. She is also my favorite Alice because her smile is so contagious and it's easy to see she had lots of fun in making these appearances. It is as always a mix of live action and animation, but (also due to the runtime) there is more live action as usual in these Alice movies, which makes it a better watch than usual and I can also see why it's not as obscure as many other from the series. But this fact alone does not make it a convincing watch really. I still though the action, and especially the animated sequences, was very forgettable. Only worth seeing for the biggest Disney lovers if they are curious about what he did in his early years. I personally give it a thumbs-down.
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